Join Mark Heim and Lee Shirvanian from 6 to 9 a.m. Wednesday on WNSP as Auburn coach Gene Chizik joins us at 8:20 to talk Auburn.
Also on the show:
Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun to talk Florida Gators and Trey Burton at 7:35 a.m.
Derek Ponamsky of BayouBengalsInsider.com on LSU’s offensive struggles at 7:20 a.m.
Rachel Baribeau of TideSportsExtra.com on Alabama at 8:35 a.m.
To join the show, call 251-694-1055 or listen live at www.wnsp.com.
A little more than two minutes into Florida coach Urban Meyer’s post-game news conference Saturday night, he let everyone know where Florida’s focus was.
“It’s Bama week,” Meyer said.
Alabama’s 32-13 rout of Florida in last year’s SEC championship game followed the Gators into spring practice. It was on their minds during offseason workouts. Talk of it sprang up during training camp. And now that the rematch is less than a week away, the Gators are anxiously awaiting their date in Tuscaloosa with the nation’s No. 1 team.
“There was a nasty taste in our mouth last year with the loss,” defensive tackle Jaye Howard said. “This offseason was dedicated to beating Alabama. We’re just going to go out there and let it all hang out.
“To me, it’s like the biggest game of the year. Whoever wins out of this game is set on a smooth-sailing path.”
Florida’s usual motto of taking each game as it comes has been slightly altered with Alabama on the schedule.
“When you face a great team like Alabama, with great players all over the place, they have great tailbacks, receivers and then their defense is one of the best in America,” Meyer said on his television show Sunday. “There’s a great routine started by this group. They understand Tuesday and Wednesday is how you go win a game. It’s not the uniform, it’s not the helmet. It’s the preparation.”
Faint mentions of the Crimson Tide have been sprinkled in by Florida players since July and the coaching staff went as far as to create a formation designed for Alabama’s offense.
That formation is known as the “heavy package” that utilizes five defensive linemen and two middle linebackers in order to suffocate the running game. Meyer and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said it was implemented to stop teams that focus on the run.
Players didn’t shy away from saying it was created primarily for their Bama plans after the Tide sliced up Florida’s front seven last December, pounding out 251 rushing yards.
“The D-line as a unit, we all let down the Gator Nation as a unit,” Howard said. “We’re going to go out there and give it our best next Saturday.”
To do that, the Gators must stop the two-headed rushing attack of Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and home-run threat Trent Richardson.
Since returning from a knee injury, Ingram has averaged 154 yards rushing and has four touchdowns in two games. While Ingram has shown he deserves to stay in the Heisman race, Howard isn’t intimidated.
“He’s no different than any other running back,” he said. “We got (Jeff) Demps on our team, Mike Gillislee, so we go against good backs. We’re just going to try to bring it to him.”
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via The Florida Gators prepare for Alabama | Gatorsports.com.
The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame will honor former Alabama coach Gene Stallings with a halftime salute at Saturday night’s Alabama-Florida game.
Stallings will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a member of the 2010 class. That ceremony will take place Dec. 7 at New York’s famed Waldorf=Astoria Hotel.
“From his years as a young assistant coach under Coach (Bear) Bryant through his head coaching days here at Alabama, Coach Stallings produced a career that is richly deserving of this recognition,” University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore said in a press release. “Coach Stallings was more than just a head coach at Alabama – his manner of doing things, his leadership and his passion took our entire program to another level.”
Stallings guided the Crimson Tide to the 1992 national championship and pieced together a 28-game winning streak.
In 1992, Stallings was the National Coach of the Year, the American Football Coaches’ Association Coach of the Year, the Paul Bryant Coach of the Year and the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year, an honor he earned twice at Alabama. Stallings coached 13 first-team All-Americans during his head coaching career and amassed an 89-70-1 record as a collegiate head coach.
Saturday’s salute is part of a season-long ceremony honoring each Football Bowl Subdivision Hall of Fame inductee. The honoree returns to his former school and is presented with a commemorative plaque is presented to the school.
“The very bottom line is that I hope every player that ever played for me feels like they had a little something to do with me getting in there,” Stallings said in May. “The real joy in coaching was seeing the players graduate. Something that stood above other things for me was the success of the player in whatever it was they did with their lives. Winning games is important, everybody knows that, but seeing the success of the player was the real joy of it all for me.”
via Gene Stallings salute at halftime of Alabama-Florida | al.com.
